This application is based on application No. 11-108303 filed in Japan, the content of which is hereby incorporated by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a micromanipulator used for manipulating a microscopic object in an arbitrary state in microscopic manipulation of cells, fabrication of fine parts and the like.
2. Description of the Background Art
In technical fields such as microscopic manipulation of cells, various micromanipulators have been conventionally used to perform a microscopic manipulation on a cell level under a microscope.
The background-art micromanipulators include a three-dimensional joy stick type hydraulic manipulator having a driving mechanism consisting of two units, i.e., an operation side and a driving side, where an operation of the operation side is hydraulically transported to the driving side to manipulate a microscopic object, an ultrasonic linear motor system manipulator using three ultrasonic linear motors and combining them in three-axis directions, i.e., X-, Y- and Z-axis directions, to achieve three degrees of freedom in rectilinear movement, and the like.
Further, in the micromanipulator with multi degrees of freedom, it is desirable to change only an attitude of the microscopic object without moving its position in performing rotary operations such as roll, pitch and yaw. From this viewpoint, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid Open Gazette 10-138184, there is a possible constitution where a rotary actuator performs the rotary movement to control the attitude of an end effector and a rectilinear movement actuator performs a rectilinear movement (translational movement) for positioning it, and a movement of any actuator does not interfere with that of other actuators.
The background-art micromanipulator, however, has a large-sized actuators, though objects to be manipulated thereby are microscopic and further has a large-sized power transport mechanism such as hydraulic mechanism using oil pressure or water pressure and a link mechanism, and therefore the manipulator itself is upsized, to cause inconvenience for actual use.
Furthermore, though the constitution of a manipulator shown in the above Laid Open Gazette makes it possible to offset a positional movement of the end effector without complicate control, the manipulator is upsized as the mechanism portion including the link mechanism is complicated in constitution even in this case, and it is disadvantageously difficult to apply this manipulator to an operation and the like in a very small working space such as under a microscope and the like.
Upsizing of the background-art manipulator is caused by the constitution in which functional means necessary for driving mechanisms of the manipulator are made of different members. For example, in most of the rectilinear movement actuators, driving means for generating a driving power, a linear guide for controlling the movement into a rectilinear direction, a driving transport mechanism for transporting a power by the driving means, a movement member movable in a rectilinear direction and the like are separately constituted, and in some manipulators, stages and the like for mounting the rectilinear movement actuators in other directions are provided. Therefore, it requires a considerably large size to assemble these separate members.
The present invention is directed to a manipulator.
According to a first aspect of the present invention, the manipulator comprises: a holding unit for holding an object; a rotary member for rotating the holding unit about a predetermined axis in a predetermined plane; and at least one parallel movement member for parallelly moving the holding unit in a direction opposite to a direction in which the center of the object is moved by rotation of the holding unit.
Therefore, it is possible to offset a positional movement of the object occurring with the operation of the rotary member and each member is constituted of the minimum elements.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, the manipulator comprises: a holding unit for holding an object; a rotary member for rotating the holding unit about a predetermined axis in a predetermined plane; a first actuator holding the rotary member and being movable in a first direction; a second actuator holding the first actuator and being movable in a second direction orthogonal to the first direction; a third actuator holding the second actuator and being movable in a third direction orthogonal to the second direction; and a control unit for driving the first, second and third actuators so as to parallelly move the rotary member in a direction opposite to a direction in which the center of the object is moved by rotation of the holding unit in rotating the holding unit holding the object in the plane by the rotary member.
Therefore, it is possible to offset the positional movement of the object occurring with the operation of the rotary member and each actuator is constituted of the minimum elements.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, the manipulator comprises: rectilinear movement means consisting of a plurality of linear actuators connected in sequence orthogonally to one another, having a plurality of degrees of rectilinear movement freedom; attitude change means having one end side connected to one of the plurality of linear actuators on the last stage and the other end side connected to a base side of the end effector, for changing an attitude of the end effector; and compensation control means for driving the rectilinear movement means so as to offset a positional movement of the object occurring with an attitude change of the end effector in changing the attitude of the end effector by the attitude change means.
Therefore, it is possible to offset the positional movement of the object occurring with the operation of the attitude change means and the manipulator is constituted of the minimum elements. Further, the link mechanism and the like can be simplified by connecting a plurality of linear actuators in sequence orthogonally to one another.
An object of the present invention is to provide a manipulator which is capable of offsetting the positional movement of an object occurring with a rotary operation with a relatively simple constitution and can be downsized with actuators constituted of the minimum elements.
These and other objects, features, aspects and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of the present invention when taken in conjunction with the occurring with drawings.